1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to a system and method for transmitting images comprising text information from one computing system to another within a remote computing environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Transmission of high resolution images to a remote system over a constrained channel has various challenges. In order to address some of these challenges, images are typically compressed at the source to reduce the size of the data set prior to transmission. Even then, there can be a noticeable delay between when the original image is transmitted and when the received image is available for display. This is particularly problematic if the system has real time interactive requirements such as the case of a remote graphical user interface (GUI).
One method of decreasing the latency (i.e., increasing the responsiveness) is to prioritize the data transmission, for example by using progressive image transmission (PIT) methods such as those available in the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) 2000 coding standards. However, some images such as computer displays are not ideally suited to such homogenous lossy compression methods. While background and picture regions of these types of images may be compressed using lossy techniques such as JPEG, these techniques are unacceptable for text regions where it is important to preserve detail associated with the text character information. One way to overcome this limitation involves decomposing the image into text and other regions prior to compression, and then processing the text regions separately, for example by applying lossless encoding methods. However, in this case, text regions do not benefit from PIT methods and remain subject to the latency constraints of the transmission channel.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and system for efficiently transmitting image text to a remote system within a remote computing environment.